Embodiments of the present invention relate to a management system for databases and, in particular, for managing multiple concurrent and possibly inconsistent requests from multiple users to change common data records.
Modern businesses use computers across almost all business functions. Computer systems model business transactions and automatically create and update data records in databases. A bank, for example, uses a computer system to open commercial loans. Database(s) in the bank's computer system serves as a repository for information on the bank's customers, terms and conditions of loans extended to those customers, customer payment history, etc. Bank employees typically must interact with the computer system to open new loans before they are approved and money is extended to a customer. As the computer system advances through its operations, it creates and updates several data objects. This is but one example; computer systems develop data records as they hire and fire employees, issue purchase orders, provide quotes to customers, arrange for product shipments and design products, among others. Many firms' computer systems provide enterprise management functions, which represent an integration of a several business and financial applications and, of course, underlying data sets.
In such systems, computer applications often field requests from a variety of computer users, which involve requests to read, update and store data in databases. The various computer users may operate independently, unaware of the activity of other users. At times, multiple users may issue concurrent requests directed to a common data object within a database. If the concurrent requests merely require data to be read from a database, typically no adverse consequences arise. If the requests, however, require data in the database to be changed, performance issues can be implicated.
Consider a simple example where two users both read and update customer data. Both users have local copies of customer address data on their computers. A first user enters a change of address representing the customer's relocation from one city to another. The data is stored in the database. Afterward, the second user notices a typographical error in the now-stale customer address (say, the city name) and corrects it. Hypothetically, the second user may enter a command that causes only the city field to be stored in the database. If the second user's command were permitted to proceed, a data inconsistency may occur because the street, state and ZIP CODE fields in the customer record may contain data as the first user had specified it but the city field will contain obsolete data.
Various database management protocols are known but they typically require control over the design of the database itself. Such protocols are inappropriate for many modern computer systems which are assembled from a variety of heterogeneous applications and databases. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a database management protocol that is non-invasive—it works equally as well with databases that have native update controls and those that do not.